Sanchez Energy seeking outside advice

Aug. 7 (UPI) — While its production increased from last year, U.S. shale player Sanchez Energy said Tuesday it was looking for outside advice to improve its performance.

CEO Tony Sanchez III said the board of directors was soliciting outside advice to guide it through a review of corporate performance across its entire portfolio.

“The goal of this review is to further enhance production and operating margins in order to achieve the financial performance Sanchez Energy’s shareholders expect,” he said in a statement.

The CEO said the second quarter was a challenging one as performance was below expectations at Eagle Ford operations in Texas. He said efforts were already under way to improve production performance.

The company recorded a net loss of $35 million in the second quarter, compared with a net profit of $53 million for the same period last year. Net production increased 8.4 percent from the same period last year. First quarter production was at the low end of its guidance.

Sanchez is one of the larger operators in the Eagle Ford shale basin in Texas and added more than 300,000 acres to its portfolio through an early 2017 acquisition from rival Anadarko Petroleum

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expected Eagle Ford to produce 1.43 million barrels of oil and 6.9 million cubic feet of gas per day this month. It has one of the highest numbers of drilled, but uncompleted, wells in the country. Those types of wells are ones that operators don’t yet want to put into production because of market conditions.

Even as Brent holds above $70 per barrel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported drilled, but uncompleted wells are on pace to increase 2.5 percent from July to August.

Christopher Heinson, the senior vice president and chief operating officer, left Sanchez last month to become CEO of Maverick Natural Resources.